Perry's pain is Romney's gain

TAMPA, Fla. — Mitt Romney’s path to the Republican nomination became clearer Monday night — and it had little to do with his attacks on Rick Perry over Social Security.

Instead, it was the fire Perry took from the right at the CNN-Tea Party Express debate that suddenly seemed more threatening to the Texas governor’s chances than Romney.

Story Continued Below

Perry was sharply criticized by Michele Bachmann for his support of vaccinating girls against HPV and whether he did so as a favor to an aide-turned-lobbyist and a pharmaceutical firm, he was hit by Rick Santorum for his opposition to a border fence and backing of Texas legislation to give the children of illegal immigrants in-state college tuition, and he was dinged by Ron Paul over whether taxes have gone up in Texas.

Taken together, few issues resonate as much with the conservative base at the moment as culture, cronyism, American identity and fiscal purity. And Perry was forced on the defensive over each of them in Tampa.

That might be the Texan’s chief vulnerability and his main rival’s best hope: that the Republican undercard of Bachmann, Santorum and Paul remain in the race to bloody Perry so much on his right flank that Romney can consolidate enough of the GOP establishment to eke out a plurality victory.

The former Massachusetts governor’s high command could barely contain their glee after the forum.

“Rick Perry came into this debate with a Social Security problem and he left with a conservative problem and he had to defend himself,” said senior Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom. “Not only on the HPV vaccine, but on the taxes he increased, the spending and the debt that went up, and his decision to provide in-state benefits to illegal immigrants.”

It’s early still, but Perry is now facing the biggest challenge yet to his month-old campaign. He found out Monday evening how difficult it can be to run as the activist favorite with some glaring deviations from party orthodoxy. Put another way, the tiger he’s been riding turned around and looked up. And that’s aside from any damage inflicted by Romney’s efforts to portray the Texas governor as too extreme on Social Security.

Perry’s surrogates put the best possible face on the evening — but also conceded that the governor is now bearing a considerable burden.

“The fact that he was taking a lot of attacks, got a lot of the questions, shows he’s the front-runner, shows folks are aiming at him,” said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, declining to say whether the candidate he endorsed hours earlier won the debate. “Rick is a tough guy. He can certainly handle himself in a debate. I’m not really interested in who wins or who loses [debates].”

Perry faced a similar right-and-middle attack in his gubernatorial primary last year when he squared off against a tea party insurgent and a party regular, but he’s already participated in as many debates in the presidential contest as he did with Debra Medina and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) through the entire governor’s primary.

Much like his second debate with his Texas foes last year, Perry sought Monday to dial back his bellicose tendencies after an aggressive debut. The problem was that the circumstances — namely his conservative creds being called into question — called for a less mellow approach in Tampa.